Quantum Leap - Vol. 11 Camp Salvation - New Vagabond Army

With me in charge of the mindless, reckless rampage towards these earned skeletons, we finally laid the armed skeletons to rest and what was left on the battlefield was broken armours and weapons from the fallen enemies. Miraculously, there weren't any heavy casualties and the ones we got was someone with a stubbed toe, some with a cracked fingernail and a few of them with singed hair when the mages unleash a firebolt that misfires and went awry. Other than that, it was considered as our 1st field victory over monsters that were at least 2 to 3 times they were supposed to attack. Hehehehe... At the end of the assault, I had the new adventurers to collect all the broken armour and broken armour to the hearth. These new adventurers had recently signed up and they were made of either school dropout or those NEET that looks for such expeditions and of course those who were enticed to join by their peers. The rule is very simple, join our band as they please and go when they please. Their weapons, armour and accessories had been provided by us and once they disbanded, all their said equipment would be dropped and collected back in our inventory. All there Common Class Light armours and Common Class Weapons had been upgraded to Epic Steel and Rare Steel respectively and had been socketed according to their own fighter class types. They had also been equipped with stackable accessories and had been given sufficient Super Enhanced Ginseng Hee Ling and Spirulina Mana Replenishment Pills. These 80 new adventures were not pay2win but free2play and there's no other commitment other than grind, earn experience points, get useful spoils and earn gold coins. So what we owned we got it back and it's bonded to the NVA and not through individual adventurer. They understood this but they decided to stick on since they heard about the Band of Vagabonds leader and his captains are not those looking for high ranking members but lowly ranked ones who would flourish under their guidance. Since it had been broadcasted seeking for new, vibrant and noobie members and the application is open for only 10 minutes since only limited slots available, a lot of noobie applicants were being rejected as the slots were quickly been taken up. An announcement appeared stating how they felt sorry for the turned down applicants and hope to recruit them again in the near future, about 90 days after it's first recruitment drive. Those 80 lucky ones knew what they were in for when they had a successful meet up at SafeHaven and signed an indemnity that they would be found up against monsters that is 2 to 4 times that they normally grind as this is for the quick progression in their levels. When the new adventurers first joined, most are in Level 2 while some were in Level 1 even. They had just started and after today's grinding, they emerged as some to Level 4 while the rest was in Level 3. Within a short 1 hours of grinding, they had risen to a considerable level while Matilda, Jean Lethal and Stef all breezed through to level 6 Raising Light. As for myself, I'm still a Level 13 Humble Master at Cheng 1 13.46%. Hahahahha. "Glory, glory, the NVA, Glory, glory, the NVA. ---------- Glory, glory, the NVA, When the Saints go marchin' in... Hoo Ahh...!!! ---------- The 80 new adventurers had learnt about our chant and were singing the choruses as we marched back towards the encampment with broken weapons and armour from the fallen enemies. "What's our leader going to do with these useless broken armours and weapons?" asked one of the Barbarian. "Beats me, maybe he will recycle this and make a kind of decorative pieces for his backyard, I think." replied a Mage. "Mebbe he wants to build a museum to showcase the types of weapons used by a certain class of enemies to educate his grandchildren in the future years." replied an Amazonian female fighter. We had reached our hearth and all the broken weapons and armours had been placed inside the hearth by our helpful adventurers and the 3 captains helped Will to prepare afternoon tea before dispersing the adventurers and then to assemble back here at 9 am the next day. This is to avoid the occurrence of seeing the invisible dwarves that were meant to be seen only by Matilda, Jean Lethal, Stef, Will.I.Am and me only. Our dwarven friends had been told earlier of our next departure to Tadcaster, with a ribbon-shaped river, lots of forested areas, a few clearings suitable for fruits and vegetable gardens, a herb garden and a place to plant those Stanspar jewels. There is large clearing protected in the centre of a river bend. The nearest towns would be Scarthingwell and Barkston Ash. Tomorrow would be the last breakfast together before we head out towards the next destination with the 80 new adventurers. Will had already packed all the Stanspar onto a pouch after breaking them up into 49 shards that could be sown almost immediately. His fruit and vegetable garden had been fully harvested and all these had been placed into 5 huge baskets so it would be hand-carried over to the next destination. The rest of the garden was left behind for the next adventurers to make use for their own supplements. ....... Tomorrow at exactly 9 am the 80 new adventurers, Matilda, Jean Lethal, Stef, Will.I.Am and I proceeded to march to the next destination set in our map and GPS that would take us 2hr and 30 mins to reach to Tadcaster. Jean Lethal didn't want to leave his floating bridge platform together with the guiding ropes, so he and several adventurers hauled it to land and pulled it across the fields. There was 2 floating boom underneath and it the floating bridge platform simply skimmed across the ground with ease.   =*= We passed a town marked on the map called Ashburn and found that it was somehow had been recently pillaged and almost all the buildings in both the marketplace and trading area were in ruins and were left smouldering. The residential houses were not spared and some residents were rummaging through the rubble, looking for something useful they could use. Matilda was the one who spotted a pair of girls who were sitting at the pavement and looked sullen and forlorn. she approached the girls and discovered that the orphanage that they were in had been burned to the ground. They were the last 2 survivors left behind as the rest had scurried off when the town was being pillaged a few nights ago. The two girls were waiting for their caretakers to come and had been huddling together for almost 2 days without food and water and yet they received no news of their caretakers coming back for them. Stef came to me and reported of these two girls that were left behind and she felt sorry for their state and said they would perish due to starvation and cold in a few days time. "Robyn, these 2 girls had nowhere else to go. Their orphanage burnt down and the caretakers and their friends had all done away and they had been stranded here without food and water for 2 days already." "Ring Leader, would you mind saving these girls since they've got nowhere to go and no-one else to turn to? If we leave them behind, these girls would soon be dead and be food to the vultures." "Errr...don't look at me Boss, I'm not involved in this dialogue script. I'll just bring the 80 adventurers away ahead for a while bit and to reach the clearing OK...remember, Boss, this conversation never takes place." Jean Lethal quickly slithered away into the crowd of 80 adventurers and gestures them to move ahead while pulling the floating bridge platform with Will.I.Am sitting on it, ignoring the 3 of us who were having a discussion right now. I sauntered over and kneeled on one knee near the two girls and looked at them. They had matted hair that was filled with some soot and dirt, they frocks were stained dirty as well, and they weren't wearing any shoes at the moment, which made the journey arduous for them. They looked at me with tear-stained faces and would do with a good scrub in the river and some Feroa Kurina so that they would be sparkling clean afterwards. Both were fighting with their fingers and their bare feet were cross crossed with one another. They both sure need a manicure and pedicure at least and threw their frock for a pair of adventurer's blouses and breeches. "Hello, this is Matilda and Stef and my name is Robyn, what are your names, little girls?" "My name is Alleicea and this is my little sister Aventina." "How old are you Alleicea and Aventina? "I'm 10 and Aventina is 8. You may call me Ally and Tina if you wish to." "Alright...Ally and Tina. Would you like to follow Sis Matilda and Sis Stef back to our encampment? At least there's company over there and no one is going to come and village and burn the place down. Did you see who did this to the town?" "There were big, green monsters with eyes as big as saucers and ears as small as a mini trumpet. Their height is taller than a man by a head at least. They were armed with Spears, Bows, Axes and Mighty Swords. They came here a few nights ago and torched the place down for no reason." explained Alleicea. "Yeah, they green monsters chopped the patrol guards like it was some kind of doll, *smack* and a head rolled on the ground with its eyes marked with 2 'X' and a tongue was that lolling at the side of its mouth," added Aventina as she expressed the horror she had seen and explained it rather comically. "Yes, we would like to follow Sis Matilda and Sis Stef here back to your encamp something." "It's called a camp for short, dear," said Stef as she held both her arms and the girls readily took it in theirs and stood up from the pavement. "Shhhhrrreeettttt.....!!!" A sudden sound of clothing being ripped could be heard and I half expected that Matilda breeches had torn due to over-snacking but it was from the girls who had sat there unmoving and the backs of their frocks had somehow frozen to the ground. The moment they lifted their butts, the cloth part where they were sitting on got stuck and torn from their frocks and left a gaping hole that exposes their innocent sweet cheek butts. Matilda quickly took cardboard and covered their butts and glared at me and said, "I will tell Granny that you like to see young girls naked butt ok... Don't put on that silly smile of yours and the only butt that you may see in the future is your own... Grrr!" Matilda and Stef brought the two orphans and made them sit on the floating bridge platform that was being pulled and Will.I.Am was made to disembark and pull along with the men. Matilda explained to Will.I.Am who these girls were and he was glad that I had decided to bring these girls back to our new encampment. That's how the story goes on how we managed to get 2 additional pair of hands for our Will.I.Am to help tend the fruits and vegetable garden as well as the Stanspar. We walked for over an hour before we reached the place that we would be calling home for the next 90 days. Will.I.Am showed me where our next fruit, vegetables and Stanspar garden would be and I agreed to him since it was encircled by a body of water that looked like an 'O' as no one else would suspect if we were to grow the invisible Stanspar jewels there.